Mitt Romney’s abysmal showing with Hispanic voters on Nov. 6 - only 27 percent cast ballots for him, according to exit polls - has sparked an ongoing and urgent soul-searching dialogue among Republicans about how their party can do better with that demographic. Some believe the answer lies in the big southwestern state that shares a long border with Mexico.

“We are very proud that the Hispanic culture is and has been a huge part of our heritage for a long time, and it will be a huge part of our future,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry told POLITICO.

The Texas GOP has a lot to crow about: in a state that’s nearly 40 percent Hispanic, all statewide offices areheld by Republicans; about 700 new Hispanic delegates went to the party’s convention last summer; Ted Cruz, the son of a Cuban immigrant, has just been elected to the U.S. Senate; and George P. Bush—who is of Hispanic descent—looks primed for a statewide run.

In interviews, a dozen party leaders, operatives, businessmen, elected officials and others said Texas could serve as a model for national Republicans looking to draw more Hispanics into the fold. They point to a proven Lone Star recipe that combines policies aimed at assisting immigrants, mixed with an effective political ground game and outreach - all of it glued together by welcoming language that embraces the Latino population and its concerns. And, those involved say, the Texas GOP has largely avoided miring itself in anti-immigrant legislation and sharp-edged words and phrases that have turned off Latino voters nationally, particularly in the last election cycle.

Perhaps the party’s single most important recent effort has been the passage of a plank supporting guest workers at the state Republican convention last summer. The key language states that the party endorses a temporary worker initiative to “bring skilled and unskilled workers into the United States for temporary periods of time when no U.S. workers are currently available.”

Texas Republicans said the plank has sent a powerful message of inclusion to the state’s Hispanic population.

“The bottom line is, the Republican Party of Texas was the first to include the guest worker program in its platform,” Joshua Treviño, an influential Texas conservative, told POLITICO. “It’s a huge deal, it’s an enormous deal…to support a guest worker program is to affirm several things that need affirming, the most important of which is, conservative Republicans don’t mind Hispanics in their communities and as their neighbors. That’s the problem with the entire immigration debate.”

Art Martinez de Vara, the mayor of the city of Von Ormy, chaired the subcommittee at the state GOP convention that oversaw the development of the plank. The measure ultimately passed with more than 2/3 support at the convention, which drew upwards of 8,000 people, he said.

“It’s a vocal minority who have hijacked the issue the last five to six years,” Martinez de Vara said. “But the vast majority of rank-and-file Texas Republicans agree with [the plank]. At the Texas state convention, with the most die-hard of state members, the largest gathering of conservatives in America, it passed.”

Brad Bailey, a Houston-area restaurant owner who also served on the plank subcommittee, drew a contrast between Texas and another border state, Arizona, which has passed some of the most stringent immigrant-related legislation in the country.

“I think being a border state that is extremely conservative, we are in a place to uniquely address this issue,” Bailey told POLITICO. “I think, more so than anyone, Arizona has [enacted] enforcement-only legislation. We feel their pain, we understand what they’re going through…but Texas is looking at the whole program.”

Readers' Comments (99)

Is this a joke? Texas will be Blue within the next 10 years. Someone wasn't watching the DNC were they? The RNC is mostly older and white. Pointing to Cruz as a shining star and saying everything is fine is foolhardy.

Having studied Anthropology in Mexico, I'm well aware that most Latinos are family oriented, religious, community oriented, and have a strong work ethic focused on providing a better life for their children than they have for themselves. These are all conservative values and not the culture of dependency advocated by liberals. However, they also believe that the community should provide a social safety net for all of it's members. It seems to me that the GOP should be able to support their cultural needs while still retaining conservative cultural values.

Even the most optimistic "hispanic outreach" people in the republican party don't talk of winning the majority of the hispanic vote, in Texas or nationwide. The blunt truth is, hispanics are poor, and poor people vote for the democrat party, because the democrats are the food stamp and WIC party, period.

This has always been the case. As long as anybody has tracked the votes of "hispanic" voters, they have voted on average 70% for democrat candidates. And given the sad reality that the hispanics tend to remain poor, generation after generation, they are pretty much guaranteed to continue to vote for democrats..

I respect the Texas republicans for doing what they can to earn the votes of hispanics. The hispanics who I personally know to vote republican tend to have some common characteristics. One, they are racially white, or predominantly white. This is crucially important, because people with dark skin and indian or african faces tend to make whites uncomfortable.

That is biological truth, and if you don't like reading it, too bad. Birds of a feather flock together. So do humans. So, white hispanics feel more comfortable, more "at home" among the predominantly anglo republican groups.

Second, the hispanics that vote republican tend to be pretty successsul, either business owners, professionals, highly paid craftsmen, people with good paying government jobs like cops, firemen, prison guards, etc. (I don't know about Texas, but those jobs pay damn good in California)

And last, the hispanic republicans I know are extremely patriotic about America, even if they were born in Mexico or another foreign country. Many of them have served in the military. I have heard stories of how impressed the immigrants were by the honesty of government in the US. The first time they filed their income taxes and got a return check, they were amazed. That would NEVER happen in Mexico, I was told. Another story concerned a guy who had to file a claim on his automobile insurance policy. He also was astounded when the insurance company paid promptly and without any fuss.

The prevailing level of public and business ethics is an eye-opener, for people from countries where corruption and dishonesty is literally universal. In many 3rd world countries, No government official does his job unless they receive a bribe. Even many businesses operate that way. So, these republican voters from latin America have a fierce pride in their new country, and feel strongly that the republican party shares their values.

So, that is my take on the Texas republicans. I salute them for doing a good job with hispanics, and I wish them luck. I still believe that they will NEVER elect a republican hispanic to the governorship. The democrats will beat them to it, with a candiate like Julian Castro, or similar type leftist.

The GOP is still using Nixon's Southern Strategy of stirring up angry white cranks by telling them how minorities are to blame for all their problems. Not surprisingly, the GOP is now the party of... wait for it... angry white cranks.

Latinos will not vote a party that wants to deport their grandma, right or wrong. They also won't vote for a party that embraces the Arizona law where people who "look" Hispanic can be required to show their "papers" if asked.

I can't wait to read all the hate-filled comments from the angry, white cranks in here. Your party has not won the popular vote in 5 out of the last 6 elections, boys. Whatever you're doing -- it's not working.

The Texas GOP are fine with Hispanics as long as they are content with being second-class citizens and stick to laboring in the fields and doing the yard work of the wealthy. And if you want basic healthcare other than being forced to show up at an ER, well, "Forget It'. Apartheid Texas-style

>Republicans, operating under the delusion that they can convince ANY people to vote against their own self interest, have ZERO credibility with the minorities that they increasingly must rely upon for their existence.

Texas GOP to foreigners: that's right, come here and work cheap so our pals in big business can profit from your cheap labor. You are welcome to come here and drive down wages for our blue collar workers by underbidding them and working cheaper. You are also welcome to buy goods from our pals in big business with your meager earnings.

But don't expect to participate in our political system by voting. we'll do everything we can to stop that.

most Latinos are family oriented, religious, community oriented, and have a strong work ethic focused on providing a better life for their children than they have for themselves. These are all conservative values

These are American values, Pal. Don't fool yourself that the millions of Latino's who vote Democratic have ANYTHING in common with the party of corporate dependency.

The people who voted for Obama and won the election are family oriented, religious, community oriented, and have a strong work ethic focused on providing a better life for their children. Those who voted for Romney just don't get it.